[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 228 (Tuesday, November 26, 2024)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 93141-93143]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-27849]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 228 / Tuesday, November 26, 2024 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 93141]]
Proclamation 10861 of November 17, 2024
International Conservation Day, 2024
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Today, I am proud to become the first sitting American
President to visit the Amazon and to proclaim the first
International Conservation Day, reflecting all that is
at stake in the fight against climate change and
honoring the power and promise of conservation work. On
International Conservation Day, we recommit to working
with partners across our Nation and around the world to
safeguard our natural treasures.
When we work together to defend our lands and waters,
everyone benefits. That is because conservation is
about more than protecting our world's beautiful
natural wonders--it is about protecting the livelihoods
of the people who depend on them; preserving our
diverse habitats and the wildlife that lives within
them; increasing resiliency throughout our lands,
seascapes, and riverscapes; and ensuring our lands and
waters can be enjoyed by all.
That is why my Administration has delivered on the most
ambitious land and water conservation agenda in
American history--leading by the power of our example.
When I first came into office, I issued an Executive
Order that established the United States' first-ever
conservation goal--aiming to protect at least 30
percent of our Nation's lands and waters by 2030. My
America the Beautiful initiative has advanced that work
by supporting voluntary, locally led conservation and
restoration. These efforts have not only helped local
communities, Tribes, farmers, ranchers, foresters, and
fishers to address the climate crisis and protect lands
and waters. They have also created jobs, strengthened
the economy, and expanded access to the outdoors across
our country. I also signed an Executive Order to
safeguard and steward our Nation's forests and make our
ecosystems more resilient in the fight against climate
change. And we launched the America the Beautiful
Freshwater Challenge to protect, restore, and reconnect
8 million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of our
Nation's rivers and streams to safeguard clean water
for all.
I am also proud that my Administration made the largest
investment in history to confront the climate crisis
through my Inflation Reduction Act and has conserved
more than 45 million acres of our Nation's lands and
waters. We have established, expanded, and restored 11
national monuments and protected the United States
Arctic Ocean from new oil and gas leasing. And together
with my Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we have invested
in restoration and conservation, including $50 billion
to strengthen community and ecosystem resilience to
climate change. Further, I launched the American
Climate Corps to mobilize a new, diverse generation of
Americans in conserving and restoring our lands and
waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying
clean energy, and advancing environmental justice--all
while creating good jobs.
Around the world, my Administration has made
extraordinary progress in advancing conservation. We
moved to rejoin the Paris Agreement on day one of my
Administration, and we put our country in a position to
cut emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero by
2050. In 2021, at the United Nations Climate Change
Conference COP26 in Glasgow, we released
[[Page 93142]]
the Plan to Conserve Global Forests--a first-of-its-
kind national strategy to preserve global ecosystems
that serve as vital carbon sinks. We also joined other
nations in pledging to end deforestation by 2030,
backed by the biggest ever commitment of public funds
for forest conservation and a plan to make 75 percent
of forest commodity supply chains sustainable. In 2022,
we helped rally countries around the world to commit to
conserve at least 30 percent of lands and waters by
2030, mirroring the goal we had set at home. We also
joined other countries at the United Nations to sign
the High Seas Treaty, committing to working together to
establish marine protected areas on the high seas--a
critical step to conserve ocean biodiversity and reach
the global community's goal to conserve or protect at
least 30 percent of the ocean by 2030.
My Administration has also delivered record climate
financing to support developing countries' efforts to
preserve and protect these vital ecosystems that serve
as critical carbon sinks, accelerate the clean energy
transition, and bolster their resilience to climate
change. In 2021, I pledged that our Nation would
deliver $11 billion per year in climate financing by
2024. I am proud that we not only kept that promise,
but surpassed it. This includes fulfilling my pledge to
invest over $3 billion per year to help vulnerable
countries around the world mitigate and adapt to
climate change as part of my Emergency Plan for
Adaptation and Resilience. I am also proud that--with
our recent $50 million investment--my Administration
has provided over $100 million to the Amazon Fund. At
the same time, our Development Finance Corporation
(DFC) has helped mobilize over $1 billion in investment
to support the restoration of degraded lands in Brazil,
Uruguay, and Chile, helping create a market that values
keeping this vital ecosystem alive and thriving.
There is still so much to do to ensure that we protect
our world's most precious ecosystems and natural
treasures. That is why the DFC is investing in one of
the largest reforestation projects in the world,
beginning with the Brazilian Amazon. I am proud that my
Administration is working with over a dozen
international partners to launch the Brazil Restoration
and Bioeconomy Finance Coalition to mobilize at least
$10 billion for land restoration and bioeconomy-related
projects by 2030. And I am proud to support President
Lula of Brazil's bold vision of creating the Tropical
Forest Forever Facility, a path-breaking new initiative
that would incentivize countries to protect their
tropical forests while supporting the local and
Indigenous communities stewarding these forests and
ensuring these vital ecosystems continue to thrive.
It has been said that the Amazon rainforest is the
lungs of the world. Forests like these, that stretch
across the Americas, Africa, and Asia--including the
Amazon, Tongass, Congo, and Sundaland--represent our
heart and soul. Now more than ever, we must recommit to
the urgent work of addressing climate change--together,
we can ensure that these treasures will be enjoyed for
generations to come.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of
the United States, do hereby proclaim November 17,
2024, as International Conservation Day.
[[Page 93143]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the two hundred and forty-
ninth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2024-27849
Filed 11-25-24; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P